Yes, from time to time we do indulge in Rap music. Sometimes we even consider calling completely electronic noises “music”. In the case of Xania’s new album, both of these things coincide.

In 2013, rapper and tap-dancer, Xania, also known as one half of the Berlin-based Band Trike from 2006 till 2012, published her first solo album. Now – surprise surprise! – her second album follows.

All Alone Together’s 10 songs (and 2 interludes) impress with a club-like sound (a rather fancy club with fancy customers), yet their contents do require a certain amount of attention – getting off your head with questionable substances while listening is not advised. ‘I’m Broke’ could be a late-capitalistic club-hit. The beatboxing right at the beginning is quite creative and gets stuck in your head in less than half a second.

The album examines the abyss of human relationships. For instance ‘You Don’t Want To’, which charmingly quotes the Cheap Trick lyrics ‘I want you to want me’ – draws the battle lines. Songs like ‘Dance with the Robot’ use robotic voice effects that add a chill to the album’s electronic sound, while the lyrics mostly strive for a warmer tone. ‘Put Your Arm Around Me’, for example, starts with warm words, then drifts away into darker territories and ends in Spanish.

‘Gotham City’ is a daydream set to music, floating around in the middle of the album. It has an interesting, multifarious arrangement, which we especially enjoyed. And because deep in our hearts we always hold faith with real, acoustic instruments, it is easy to name our favorite: ‘Follow Me’ has a beautiful bass-line, gets stuck in your head and adds a feeling similar to Architecture in Helsinki to the album.

As a bonus, a nice party-track is hidden at the end of the album.

We recommend the album to anyone that has not completely rejected Hip Hop and Electro. Yeah, well, that is probably the majority. We are quite old-school. But sometimes it is rewarding to look beyond your own musical horizon. Xania’s second Album All Alone Together is definitely highly recommended, even if we are not the experts in this type of music.

My father died when I was 13 and my two younger brothers were 11 and 7. Having a parent die when we were kids left a void in the three of us. Our childhoods and teens were partly spent trying to fill that bottomless void in however ways we could. Shitty relationships, television, booze, weed, studying and working as hard as possible, may have been attempts at filling the void. One by one we each, in turn, came of age. And the void thinned.
But it never went away. (Perhaps because I don’t think I want it to. Like that song ‘I don’t wanna get over you’. I hold on to a bit of grief because letting go of it would mean letting go of a piece of my dad. And I don’t want to.)

Besides stunting us, losing our father also gave us something. My brothers and I all value time like barely anyone I know. We can’t stand and won’t put up with doing things we don’t like doing. Because we’ve learned that time is limited, so we value that shiznit.

It can be easy to look at the dead through a hazy filter of nostalgia that smooths out faults and turns them into noble attributes. So only recently have I been able to look back and value memories of not only my dad but my mom as well.

Holy shit, it must’ve been hard losing your soul-mate (being mega-in-love helps me with that perspective). Holy shit, it must’ve been hard raising us on your own. Holy shit it must’ve been hard being the only person in your family living in Montreal (the rest of whom live in Mexico, which is so far away). And having to find a job after being a stay-at-home mom for forever. And juggling grief, crappy jobs and annoying kids who want expensive crap they see on tv.

And never once did I hear my mom complain about money. When we wanted fancy clothes, she would take us to the second-hand shops and buy us second-hand clothes we thought were lame and told us that it was a lesson in ‘Not giving a fuck’ and we’d appreciate it someday.

Well, I sure appreciate it now. Because I don’t give a fuck. (At least I try not to.) And I’m so thankful for that.

My brothers and I may not have many measurable achievements, but we do have something. We have some sort of invisible incorruptibility. A quality in us that can’t be dissolved because it comes from our experiences.